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The Greater Memphis Chamber has promoted Ernest Strickland to senior vice president of workforce development, a newly created role. Strickland, who has worked at the chamber since 2006, previously served as vice president of international and business partnerships.In his new position, he is responsible for creating and implementing the chamber’s workforce development strategy. His department serves as a liaison, working directly with existing and prospective businesses to ensure they are able to attract and retain a qualified workforce today and in the future.

Death claimed transcendent political figures in 2016, including Cuba's revolutionary leader and Thailand's longtime king, but also took away royals of a different sort: kings of pop music, from Prince and David Bowie to George Michael.

Longtime nonprofit administrator Diane Duke recently took the helm of Friends for Life as its new executive director. In her new role, the Los Angeles native leads and oversees an organization that’s helping those affected by HIV/AIDS through the provision of education, housing, food, transportation and healthy life skills training.

Gov. Bill Haslam’s plan to restructure higher education didn’t take long to shake up the hierarchy.

It led to the early retirement of Board of Regents Chancellor John Morgan, who blasted the proposal in a letter to the governor, before legislation even hit the printing press. The longtime state official said he would rather step down than support a plan he feels will be detrimental to colleges and universities.

Re: The column in which I quoted lawyers’ courtroom and deposition questions and statements. Ron Curlin of Memphis writes, “Without question, this is the most hilarious column you’ve ever done. It has brightened my day tremendously! As far as I’m concerned, you have set a precedent with this one, and I fully expect to see more ‘Did They Really Say That?’ columns chosen from the attorney’s side of the proceedings. Thank you for making my day. Keep up the excellent work.”

Mandy McBroom has been named director of operations for Indie Memphis, the first full-time staff member to hold the position. In her new role, she will oversee festival operations, shorts programming, volunteer opportunities and membership growth.

FRANKLIN, Tenn. (AP) — Gov. Bill Haslam said Wednesday that he's awaiting the outcome of an investigation into whether lawmakers improperly intervened with a state board to help three nurse practitioners whose licenses were suspended, but acknowledged he doesn't like it "when people use their leverage to accomplish a personal agenda."

Create a new super-regulator. Use a sale of bank assets to pay for cleaning up the next mammoth meltdown.

As lawmakers consider those and other ideas in putting the final touches on financial overhaul legislation, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, wants another proposal placed on the table: putting a ceiling on how large banks can grow.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to allow the government to seek nearly $300 billion from the tobacco industry for a half-century of deception that "has cost the lives and damaged the health of untold millions of Americans."

Memphis Mayor-elect A C Wharton Jr. will be appointing a new city attorney once he takes office next week.

Elbert Jefferson, the city attorney Mayor Pro Tem Myron Lowery tried to fire just minutes after taking the oath of office on July 31, Friday sent a second resignation letter to Lowery. The two met for an hour Sunday evening at City Hall and Lowery accepted Jefferson’s resignation.

Jefferson’s attorney, Ted Hansom, and city Chief Administrative Officer Jack Sammons were also present. Jefferson turned in his key card, the keys to his city car and his laptop.

“The drama is over,” Lowery said Monday. “For my part, I wish it had never happened.”

Dramatis personae

In a resignation letter last week to Wharton, Jefferson had expressed hope that he would be hired for some position in the new administration. Over the weekend, he used the same text in the new letter but addressed it to Lowery instead. He requested the city pay his legal fees as well.

The resignation letter to Lowery made moot an ouster suit filed by Shelby County District Attorney General Bill Gibbons. Criminal Court Judge James Lammey, who was to hear the case, reset a final report to Oct. 27, citing Jefferson’s departure.

“A hearing on the issue of suspension would be an inefficient use of judicial resources, of the state of Tennessee and of the resources of the city of Memphis, and considering (Jefferson’s) current health status, would be an unnecessary tax on (Jefferson’s) well-being and a possible threat to his health,” Lammey wrote in the court order.

Jefferson was scheduled to return to City Hall from sick leave Monday. He apparently believed the new mayor would be in office by the time he returned.

An audit of city financial affairs is standard procedure in a change of administrations. Wharton is naming team members to review the offices of the city attorney, human resources and finance and administration. He was also to name members of his transition team Monday.

Time-, battle-tested

Shelby County Commissioner Mike Carpenter and Methodist Healthcare executive Cato Johnson will head the team.

Johnson has more experience serving on such task forces and ad hoc committees than any other leader in the city’s corporate community. Most recently, Johnson was one of two business leaders on the ad hoc committee exploring single-source local funding for education. He also served as a leader of the Mid-South Fairgrounds renovation committee and has been involved in similar capacities with every major construction project for a civic use in the past 15 years.

Carpenter’s appointment is certain to fuel speculation that he might be tapped for some role in the new administration. However, Carpenter has already been holding fundraisers in anticipation of a bid for re-election to his commission seat in the 2010 county elections.

Wharton is tentatively scheduled to take the oath of office Oct. 26.

The Shelby County Commission also meets that same day and could receive Wharton’s resignation and declare a vacancy in the county mayor’s office with a vote to appoint Wharton’s successor-to-come in November. Until that vote, County Commission Chairwoman Joyce Avery will serve as interim mayor.

“It will be a day in which I come to work at one place and leave work from another place,” Wharton told The Daily News.

But the Shelby County Election Commission will meet earlier than expected -- Thursday afternoon -- to certify the Oct. 15 election results. Once the results are certified, Wharton is free to resign as Shelby County mayor and take the oath as Memphis mayor.

Cooperative efforts

Meanwhile, Wharton has asked City Council Chairman Harold Collins to consider delaying a council vote today on the five appointees the city mayor is to make to a metro charter commission. The council set today’s vote with the intention of having whomever won the Oct. 15 special election appoint members of the panel.

“I won’t be there on the 20th. … I’m seeing if they are in a position to put it off until I’m actually over there,” Wharton told The Daily News, as he has had attorneys researching if a council vote in November would meet timelines for such an effort set out in state law.

“I believe that they may be able to meet on Nov. 3,” Wharton said.

Wharton has already named the 10 appointees to be made by the Shelby County mayor to the panel. The County Commission approved all 10 earlier this month.

While it appears he will make the other five, Wharton said he will ask the council, through Collins, to effectively pick the five nominees, whom Wharton would then send to the council as his appointees.

“I chose all 10 over here, which I had to do by law. If I could find some way around it that passed legal muster, then I would do that,” he said. “But we’ve researched it and I know of no way in which the city mayor can say … ‘I’m not going to do that.’ You can’t transfer it.”

Wharton and Lowery were to discuss the matter at a meeting Monday afternoon. Lowery told The Daily News he had received no suggested appointees from council members, but would be willing to submit names the council wants on the charter commission.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Five environmental groups petitioned federal regulators Wednesday to block the only commercial nuclear reactor now under construction in the United States – an unfinished 1970s-era reactor the Tennessee Valley Authority is working to complete after three decades in mothballs.

Hartsfield will oversee the continued stability and growth of the foundation’s fiscal, strategic, organizational and operational functions. Her duties also will include building and maintaining relationships with community leaders, as well as creating collaborations, which will enhance the foundation’s strategic model.

Dr. Richard W. Phillips has been named president-elect of Southern College of Optometry in Memphis. Phillips is a 1978 graduate of the college and the former regional executive director for Tennessee operations for TLC - Laser Eye Centers. He will be only the sixth person to hold the office in the college's 75-year history. Phillips will assume the presidency May 17. He is replacing William E. Cochran, who is retiring.

Gale Jones Carson has been named director of corporate communications for Memphis Light, Gas & Water Division. In her new executive-level position, she will report directly to MLGW president and CEO Joseph Lee III. She previously was executive assistant to Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton.

In a speech to the nation's governors at an education summit last year, Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates called the nation's high schools obsolete - and his ideas about how to fix that problem are having a profound effect on the way Memphis schools operate.

Eric Mathews was named associate director of corporate research and development at the University of Memphis FedEx Institute of Technology. Mathews previously served FIT in temporary roles directing research and business development and was part of the institute's founding executive management. He earned a bachelor's degree from Rhodes College and a master's degree from the University of Memphis.

The Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police presented U.S. Rep. John DeBerry the Legislator of the Year award. DeBerry, who represents District 90 in Memphis, is chairman of the House Children and Family Affairs committee.

The Bartlett Chamber of Commerce hosts its monthly luncheon from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Holiday Inn-Sycamore View, 6101 Shelby Oaks Drive. A presentation will be given by Lifeblood of Memphis. Cos...

33. Archived Article: Tech Briefs - Wednesday, December 26, 2001 Kevin Rushing, senior technology consultant for Reynolds, Bone & Griesbeck PLC No change in your pocket? You can still get a Pepsi from a vending machine as long as you have a credit card. Last week, Pepsi-Cola North America implemented a wirele...

34. Archived Article: Marketplace (profit) - Monday, June 29, 1998 By STACEY PETSCHAUER Finding the obvious Profit Enhancement Process teaches companies how to improve profit and overall performance By STACEY PETSCHAUER The Daily News When workers for a trash hauling company go to a landfill, they drive onto the sc...

35. Archived Article: Baptist - Tuesday, November 18, 1997 By SUZANNE THOMPSON Baptist to file certificates of need for expansions By SUZANNE THOMPSON The Daily News Baptist Memorial Health Care Corp. plans to file certificates of need for a new health care campus in the Medical Center and an expansion of B...

36. Archived Article: Calendar - Monday, March 10, 1997 March 10 March 10 Professional Secretaries International will meet at 6 p.m. at the Marriott, 2625 Thousand Oaks Blvd. The speaker will be Shirley Jones, past president of the state division of PSI. The cost is $13. For more information, call Nathal...

38. Archived Article: Memos - Wednesday, September 18, 1996 Dr. Magdi Wassef has joined the Methodist Primary Care Center in Southaven. Wassef practiced family medicine for two years at the Tallahatchie General Hospital in Charleston, Miss. He received his medical degree from the University of Alexandria in ...

39. Archived Article: Calendar - Monday, September 09, 1996 Sept Sept. 9 Professional Secretaries International will meet at 6 p.m. at the Marriott hotel, 2625 Thousand Oaks Blvd. The guest speaker will be Julie Terry, a certified public accountant and financial advisor with American Express. The cost is $12...